|
I was asked today my opinion of the announcement that George Bush was going to create the world largest marine area. I didn't have an immediate answer so I did some research. I now have an answer.
Pasted below are two articles. The first, from the UK's Independent, a progressive newspaper suggests the obvious --- that it might be "Greenwash". The second, from Republicans for Environmental Protection praises the President's "gift and legacy" in the most glowing terms imaginable.
Reading those article couldn't give a definitive answer but they led me to suspect that buried within this tasty piece of Velveeta was a sharp hook. So I dug.
Does the following sentence, quoted from the Whitehouse's announcement, mean anything to you!??
www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060615-9.html
The President's Ocean Action Plan Calls On Congress To Reauthorize The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation And Management Act. Under the President's plan, this act would provide enhanced authority to work with regional fish councils to build an improved, market-based system to restore our fisheries.
I suspect passage of Magnuson-Stevens is the hook. Why --- because the Free-Market privatization folks at PERC have recently praised President Bush for his environmental stand on fisheries www.perc.org/perc.php?id=765 and PERC's Don Leal was recently appointed to the President's Fisheries council www.perc.org/perc.php?id=751 and because the issue of Ocean Fisheries privatization is such a high priority for PERC www.perc.org/topics.php?topic=9 and because the political fate of Magnuson-Stevens has merited recent attention on PERC's website www.perc.org/perc.php?id=795.
And that's not the only hook I suspect. Read the Whitehouse's announcement and you'll see a lot of talk about cooperative conservation, building a strong American off-shore aquaculture industry and more. I suspect we're dealing with at least a treble hook.
Scott
----- begin quoted -----
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1089265.ece
Greenwash: Bush creates world's largest marine park
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 16 June 2006
President George Bush has announced that he intends to create the
world's largest marine conservation area across a broad swath of the
Pacific, surprising and delighting his environmentalist critics who
have had little but withering criticism of the "toxic Texan" over the
past five and a half years.
The marine sanctuary, tentatively named the Northwestern Hawaiian
Islands National Monument, will cover 140,000 square miles, stretching
from Hawaii to Midway Atoll, site of a Second World War battle between
the United States and Japan. It includes small islands, atolls and many
precious coral reefs. The area is home to about 14 million seabirds,
including albatrosses and terns, as well as green turtles, monk seals
and spinner dolphins. It contains about 7,000 indigenous animal and
bird species found nowhere else in the world.
The sanctuary, which may eventually be given a native Hawaiian name,
will be slightly larger than Australia's Great Barrier Reef - currently
the largest marine protected area in the world - and cover an area
bigger than all the United States' existing marine sanctuaries and
land-bound national parks combined. Commercial activity will be banned,
and the eight fishing boats currently permitted to enter the area will
have their licences phased out over the next five years.
Environmentalists, more used to heaping scorn on a Bush administration
that has consistently eroded protections for national parks and forests
on land, were unambiguous in their praise and said they hoped to see
the White House do more of the same in future.
"We're ecstatic. This is a major step forward for the United States,
and we're hopeful this signals a new approach to marine conservation,"
said Lisa Speer, an oceans specialist with a lobby group, the National
Resources Defence Council.
She said she now hoped the US would take the lead in protecting other coral habitats on the high seas.
Just this week, the United Nations was conducting talks on ways to
mitigate the threat to deep-ocean coral reefs from bottom-trawl
fishing, and Ms Speer said she hoped the White House's initiative would
give a decisive push to the conservationist cause.
Politically, there were grounds to be sceptical about the initiative,
with some thinking it could be a "greenwash". The Bush administration
is badly in need of some positive coverage in the run-up to November's
mid-term elections, and it could be seen as a bid for popularity.
Unlike many of the national parks and forests in the continental US,
the marine area in the Pacific is not eyed jealously by energy or
mining interests with close ties to the White House. The protected area
has almost no human population, and the eight families with fishing
permits do not live there.
Most environmentalists, however, preferred to take the President at
face value than question his motives. The White House, for its part,
explained that President Bush took a personal interest in the question
after viewing a television documentary about the coral reef archipelago
in April. The film was made by Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of Jacques
Cousteau, who was present at the White House screening and was
personally congratulated by the President.
Environmentalists and Hawaiian politicians, led by Governor Linda
Lingle, a Republican, have lobbied the administration to create such a
protection area for the past five years. At first, the White House
showed little interest, and even in the past few months President Bush
considered referring any possible creation of a marine sanctuary to
Congress for ratification.
Yesterday, pending an official announcement, Mr Bush was expected to
invoke the 1906 Antiquities Act, which grants presidents the right to
create protection areas single-handedly. The only previous time he has
invoked the Act was to protect a burial ground in Manhattan where
20,000 slaves and free blacks were laid to rest in the 18th century.
The Bush administration has, in fact, shown less interest in
environmental conservation than any presidency in memory. Not only had
the White House not established any new conservation areas, it had
repeatedly eroded protections for existing ones and lobbied to open
them up to commercial exploitation. The biggest battle has been over
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, which the administration
has tried - and so far failed - to open up to oil and gas drilling. But
there have been many others.
The Department of the Interior, along with state and local officials,
have encouraged oil and gas leases on the edge of national parks and
wilderness areas where they risk being a blight on the landscape and a
serious pollution hazard. Affected areas include the red rock canyons
of Utah and Yellowstone National Park, which straddles northern Wyoming
and southern Montana.
The administration has given the go-ahead for logging and road-building
in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, which Bill Clinton tried to
protect in the dying days of his administration. It has loosened
regulations on logging and building in all national forests, and
reversed a ban on snowmobiling in the Yellowstone and Grand Teton
National Parks.
The record in marine conservation has been slightly better, but nothing prepared experts for yesterday's announcement.
---
http://www.ewire.com/display.cfm/Wire_ID/3122
**************************************************************
E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE
**************************************************************
Marine National Monument
Bush Deserves Credit for New National Monument
SEATTLE, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Jun. 15 -/E-Wire/-- President Bush
deserves strong praise for establishing today the largest marine
preserve in the world, Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP),
a national grassroots organization, said today.
"The president's action is a major accomplishment. The Northwestern
Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument protects nearly 90 million
acres, a vast expanse of beautiful marine waters and islands that
feature archaeological sites and nearly 3 million acres of coral reefs,
in addition to green sea turtles, monk seals, seabirds, and 7,000 other
species of tropical wildlife that need strong protection. In this
centennial of the Antiquities Act, President Bush's establishment of
this wonderful monument is a spectacular way to celebrate one of the
nation's most important conservation laws," REP Policy Director Jim
DiPeso said.
"The president's use of the Antiquities Act is highly significant. He
invoked a law that Theodore Roosevelt and 12 other predecessors from
both parties used to give permanent protection to American icons such
as the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty, Carlsbad Caverns, and
Glacier Bay. President Bush's action is a truly conservative
achievement that protects an untrammeled ocean wilderness, another
spectacular example of America's natural and cultural heritage," REP
Government Affairs Director David Jenkins said. "President Bush's
action today is a gift and a legacy for future generations to
appreciate and enjoy," Jenkins said.
/SOURCE:
Republicans for Environmental Protection
-0-
06-15-2006
/CONTACT:
Jim DiPeso - 253-740-2066 David Jenkins - 703-785-9570
/WEB SITE: http://www.rep.org
---- end -----
|
- Privatization 
